OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2012. SIBUR companies reduced their industrial and sanitary waste by 31% and their discharge of waste water by 27% in 2011, compared with 2010.

SIBUR’s key ecological contribution continues to be the processing of associated petroleum gas (APG) resulting from petroleum extraction. Processing of APG by SIBUR increased by 3.3% in 2011 compared with 2010, amounting to more than 18 billion cubic metres. Industry experts estimate the combustion of one million cubic metres of associated petroleum gas releases more than 300 tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere, including compounds hazardous to health such as nitrogen dioxide, soot and carbon monoxide. Therefore, based on the processing of APG in 2011, SIBUR prevented the release of about 5.4 million tonnes of pollutants into the atmosphere.

SIBUR spent 1.22 billion roubles in 2011 on operations as part of its Regulation of the Quality of the Environment programme and the amount paid out due to negative impact on the environment was one million rubles lower than in 2010 at 40.8 million rubles.

The company specifically achieved a substantial decrease in the volume of various types of solid waste resulting from the conversion of chemical waste in half-finished materials at Azot (Kemerovo), a fall in the amount of waste water at Sibur Khimprom (Perm), and a decrease in the formation of exhaust accelerant and less waste water produced from mechanical and biological cleaning processes at Togliatti Rubber Plant.

In accordance with international standard ISO 14001:2004, a pre-certification audit of the Corporate System for Ecological Management (CSEM) of the Company was carried out in the first half of 2011 at several SIBUR companies, including the Yuzhno-Balyksky Gas Treatment Plant, the Krasnoyarsk Synthetic Rubber Plant, Sibur-PETF and Sibur-Neftekhim. The improvements in operations to reduce the ecological impact of the Company’s industrial operations was noted by a group of independent certification auditors from the Bureau Veritas Certification Rus. Based on the results of the audit, SIBUR’s Corporate System for Ecological Management was recommended for an extension of its certification under international standard ISO 14001:2004 for the next three years. During 2011, 4,811 employees underwent training to develop and execute the CSEM and to raise ecological awareness, an increase of 25% on the number in 2010.

In addition, SIBUR launched 46 ecological activities under the corporate philanthropy program Business for Ecology. The project was carried out by the Company working jointly with the Green Cross, the Russian Ecological Congress, the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Nature, the Siberian Ecological Agency, Dront, EKA, Musora.Bolshe.Net and other ecological movements and organizations. The initiatives included laying out five parks, planting 2.5 hectares of forest, collecting more than six tonnes of garbage, and the release of several ecological projects. The programme budget for completed initiatives was 18.8 million rubles.